Sports Authority Reviews

Pros

This is an excellent field for the exercise fitness student or professional to pursue. The company offers many perks for selling in specific departments as well.

Cons

Perks are not offered to associates in every department despite their selling capabilities or position held. This may lower the overall morale in the establishment.

Pros

-Decent pay
-Fun people to work with
-Opportunity to move up within company

Cons

-Lack of respect from certain managers
-Have to push too many key metrics (Extended Coverage Plans, Insoles, Thorlo socks, Customer Service Surveys, Online Ordering)
-District Manager wont even acknowledge associates
-Have to try to survive through shifts a lot of the time
-Hours based on how well you sell all the metrics
-Extreme lack of payroll

Advice to Senior Management

Don't try to push so many things and try to make it a place people enjoy to work at. Figure out the payroll so there are enough people working within the stores. Managers need to stop being so selfish.

Pros

Close to Home, Benefits, employee discount, fellow employee's fun to work with, use to be full time havent worked a full 40 hours in weeks

Cons

Management has no clue of what they are suppose to do, most are cashiers , since payroll keeps getting cut every week, no recognition for good work, expected to change schedule as the truck schedule changes, RDC has no clue of whats coming to you , when , how many pallets, Store Manager will send you home after working 4 hours into your scheduled 7 hour shift and then expect you to work 11 or 12 hours the next day when the truck arrives, morale at the store is as low as it can go, only thing that keeps people there are jobs are hard to find right now , and time invested in this company has surely gone to waste , RDC sends too much of one product , while your out of a hot seller for weeks, no employee's on the floor due to hours cutbacks, customers are basically on their own, you will never be in the top 50 companies they way the company is headed, sad to see, use to be a fun place to work, last year has 13 pdo's taken down to 10 pdo's so we could enjoy our time off more, what kind of crock is that? this year they will reduce them down even more i am sure, so you can enjoy them even more, enough for now, thanks for reading

Advice to Senior Management

Learn your job responsibilites, hold your self and other managers and employee's accountable, learn how to train , don't just throw new employee's out there and expect them to learn through osmosis

Pros

Get out on scheduled time, instead of hours after scheduled time.
I have made a lot of new friends, I would have to say is the best thing about working here.

Cons

They push hard on selling insoles every day, its difficult to sell 5 to 10 insoles a day when there is only about 5 people all day.
Poor management skills
Insulting motivation
They make you feel bad about yourself if you don't sell
I know this is a sales job but they really pit you against other employees to the point of sneakiness and resentfulness.
Unable to speak to managers.
I almost even quit after my first 2 weeks, horrible treatment.
Using threatening to write up a senior associate if sales didn't pick up.
The manager even asked me to skip a day of class so I can do the orientation.
Same manager told me I was asking for too many days off when I had doctors appointments.
I get paid less than other associates, even though I have more experience.
I get paid 25 cents more at another job due to my experience.
The other two guys in my department get paid much more than I do.
After 8 hours of work, they do not let you know that u have to take a hour break. You have to ask for it. They only inform you to take a 30 min break.
Limited stock so unable to completely make a costumer happy.
Constant insults from manager due to me coming from previously working at a competitive store.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice to the management is to not push your associates so hard. It makes them not want to come to work and seek work elsewhere. I realize that Sports Authority has several big competitions in town and they are losing money but that is no reason to terrorize employees.

Pros

The discount, which as of January of 2012, is going away. Unfortunately, outside of that, there really aren't many perks...it's your standard retail job. Decent benefits, I suppose.

Cons

Poor recognition, bad communication and a propensity for micro-managing. No time-and-a-half on holidays, which is a crime. I just worked 10 hours on Thanksgiving...absurd

Advice to Senior Management

We're in retail people. Understand that you can have a great-looking store, or a money machine...but not both. There is a happy medium and that should be the goal. If you want high CEI scores, stop giving your people so much to do that they have a hard time giving customers the attention they need/desire.

Pros

Excellent compensation
Decent discount on purchases at stores (but now that's gone)
Wonderful group of people to work with
Saw many opportunities for improvements

Cons

Leadership only cares about themselves
Paranoid culture where mistakes were not tolerated and "rocking the boat" was discouraged
Organization is run by HR, not the individual business units

Advice to Senior Management

Give your managers and directors more support and authority to make business decisions
Acknowledge that the culture is toxic and needs to be fixed
LISTEN to what the employees have to say instead of what the VPs are saying

Pros

The work is different everyday.
Getting to meet lots of interesting people.
An amazing discount for management.
Locations all over the US if you feel like transferring.

Cons

Working a different schedule everyday. I have horrible shiftwork disorder.
The pay is not enough for the amount of responsibility.
The pay increase from a sales associate to management was only incremental.
Expectations of your job performance get higher every year while tools needed to succeed are decreased (payroll, assets, peripherals, etc.)

Advice to Senior Management

I understand that a good portion of your employees are just putting themselves through college, but you need to make a better effort at creating long-term relationships with full-time employees. Make us feel like we matter to you. Give us the tools to succeed at our jobs and make it worth our while to stay with the company.

Pros

My management has always been understanding when I needed time off for college. Easy work environment because I get along with all of the staff, and I have never had an altercation with my coworkers.

Cons

My level of compensation could be higher. There are individuals who work there who are not as productive as me, and they are paid more based on prior experience.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay based on performance, and not based on experience or the amount of hours that the associates work. Also, make a more educated choice when you're determining which individuals to hire. Often times management will decide to hire individuals who look good on paper, but cannot interact well with customers.

Pros

Following the policy changes from the last few years, Sports Authority has grown to be an enjoyable work environment where employees are able to learn as they go, are HIGHLY praised for their work through weekly status reports, and are treated as equals by fellow employees, management included.

Cons

As can be expected from any entry level position, unfortunately some of the employees of Sports Authority fall on the immature side of things. Managers also (whether deservingly so or not) tend to favor the associates that they personally train over other associates; it is fairly obvious. The most unfortunate part about this is that it often influences changes of position.

Advice to Senior Management

In my opinion, the management at ALL Sports Authority stores should be at least a tad bit more picky when selecting new applicants, mainly regarding the maturity level of potential employees. Other than that, my only advise would be to offer advancement opportunities by merit rather than random selection; no employee without managerial experience should be hired on as a department lead without proving his/her self first.

Pros

Decent benefits
Good customer base
Working with sporting goods
Good pay

Cons

Communication issues
Lack of resources for store level mgrs. (Payroll)
Poor real estate decisions
Keeping incopentant people in positions that need competance.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to enforce / track job performance of various field staff.
Get the right people in the right positions like you said you were going to earlier in the year. Not just change the title of the person.
Give stores the resources to do their OWN marketing.
Payroll, payroll, payroll. You want satisfied customers? You want to be a leader in tech services? Give stores the resources to make it happen